Thursday, December 11, 2014

#MuseumsrespondtoFerguson

Over the past year, the themes of courage and empathy have repeatedly come into my professional life, from watching Ukrainian museums and the Revolution to working with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center on ways to convey emotional, not physical, courage to museum visitors. Increasingly, I find that I am looking inside myself and at the field to see how we can be bolder, how we can invest in communities before a time of crisis when our communities need us. Over the last week, Gretchen Jennings has virtually brought a diverse group of museum bloggers and colleagues together to think about our individual, organizational and field-wide responsibilities in terms of the events in Ferguson, Cleveland and Staten Island. Here's our statement. I hope you'll join all of us (see the full list at the bottom of this post) in this effort.

Joint Statement
from Museum Bloggers and Colleagues on Ferguson and related events

The
recent series of events, from Ferguson to Cleveland and New York, have created
a watershed moment. Things must change. New laws and policies will help, but any movement toward
greater cultural and racial understanding and communication must be supported
by our country’s cultural and educational infrastructure. Museums are a part of
this educational and cultural network. What should be our role(s)?

Schools and
other arts organizations are rising to the challenge. University law schools are hosting seminars on Ferguson.
Colleges are addressing greater cultural and racial understanding in various
courses. National education organizations and individual teachers are
developing relevant curriculum resources, including the #FergusonSyllabus project initiated by Dr. Marcia
Chatelain. Artists and arts
organizations are
contributing their spaces and their creative energies. And pop culture icons,
from basketball players to rock stars, are making highly visible commentary
with their clothes and voices.

Where do
museums fit in? Some might say that only museums with specific African American
collections have a role, or perhaps only museums
situated in the communities where these events have occurred. As mediators of culture, all museums should commit to identifying how they can connect to
relevant contemporary issues irrespective of collection, focus, or mission.

We are a
community of museum bloggers who write from a variety of perspectives and
museum disciplines. Yet our posts
contain similar phrases such as
“21st century museums,” “changing museum paradigms,”
“inclusiveness,” “co-curation,” “participatory” and “the museum as forum.” We believe that strong connections
should exist between museums and their communities. Forging those connections
means listening and responding to those we serve and those we wish to
serve.

There is hardly
a community in the U.S. that is untouched by the reverberations emanating from
Ferguson and its aftermath. Therefore we believe that museums everywhere should
get involved. What should be our role--as institutions
that claim to conduct their activities for the public benefit--in
the face of ongoing struggles for greater social justice both at the local and
national level?

We urge museums
to consider these questions by first looking within. Is there equity and
diversity in your policy and practice regarding staff, volunteers, and Board
members? Are staff members talking about Ferguson and the deeper issues it
raises? How do these issues relate to the mission and audience of your
museum? Do you have volunteers?
What are they thinking and saying? How can the museum help volunteers and
partners address their own questions about race, violence, and community?

We urge museums
to look to their communities. Are there civic organizations in your area that
are hosting conversations? Could you offer your auditorium as a meeting place?
Could your director or other senior staff join local initiatives on this topic?
If your museum has not until now been involved in community discussions, you
may be met at first with suspicion as to your intentions. But now is a great
time to start being involved.

Join with your
community in addressing these issues. Museums may offer a unique range of
resources and support to civic groups that are hoping to organize workshops or
public conversations. Museums may want to use this moment not only to “respond”
but also to “invest” in conversations and partnerships that call out inequity
and racism and commit to positive change.

We invite you
to join us in amplifying this statement. As of now, only the Association of
African American Museums has issued a formal statement about the larger issues
related to Ferguson, Cleveland and Staten Island. We believe that the silence
of other museum organizations sends a message that these issues are the concern
only of African Americans and African American Museums. We know that this is
not the case. We are seeing in a variety of media – blogs, public statements,
and conversations on Twitter and Facebook---that colleagues of all racial and
ethnic backgrounds are concerned and are seeking guidance and dialogue in
understanding the role of museums regarding these troubling events. We hope
that organizations such as the American Alliance of
Museums; the Association of Science-Technology Centers; the Association of Children’s Museums; the American Association for State and Local History and others, will join us in acknowledging
the connections between our institutions and the social justice issues
highlighted by Ferguson and related events.

You can join us
by...

●Posting and sharing this statement on
your organization’s website or social media

●Contributing to and following the
Twitter tag #museumsrespondtoFerguson which is growing daily

3 comments:

Thanks Jasper--it really represents the work of a great community of colleagues who jointly deserve all credit. I was really pleased to be able to stand with this important effort--and have been really pleased to see it resonate not just here in the US, but around the world.

In Response to the Museum Bloggers Joint Statementhttp://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2014/12/joint-statement-from-museum-bloggers.html

In December, a group of thought-leaders in the museum field posted a joint statement on their individual blogs as a call to action for museums and museum professional associations. They rightly point to the incidents in communities across the country where tensions among citizens and law enforcement have become flashpoints that vividly and tragically reflect a nation conflicted. The bloggers call for a “movement toward greater cultural and racial understanding and communication [that] must be supported by our country’s cultural and educational infrastructure” (Museum Bloggers, 2014). We agree.

As Museum Studies faculty, we would like to add to this conversation and continue our advocacy for civically engaged museums. A deeply held tenet of our program is that museums are integral to community life and exist not only to preserve natural and cultural heritage but also to serve the needs and interests of neighborhoods, cities, and the greater society. We seek to empower students with the sensitivities, tools, and agency needed to do meaningful and thoughtful work, within their departments, museums, and communities. As a civically engaged institution, the museum can only be as good as the people who work there.

The bloggers and others have suggested ways in which museums can truly invest in the conversations, partnerships, and solutions so desperately needed. For those of us teaching Museum Studies and related subjects, universities and colleges must be sites of expression, training, and problem solving. The tradition of higher education to foster and inspire social change is not simply historical or rhetorical. In this spirit, we re-commit ourselves to promote cultural competency, support open and facilitated dialogue, and help museums best serve their communities.

About Me: Suitcase Packed

I'm Linda Norris, currently Global Networks Program Director for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Before joining the Coalition in 2017, I was an independent professional focusing on creativity and community engagement with museums and cultural organizations. I'm the co-author, with Rainey Tisdale, of Creativity in Museum Practice and blog here as a way of sharing my questions, my learning, and approaches worth considering.

I'm on the road often, so here's the place where you'll find updates if you'd like to meet in person. In March 2018, I'll be in the Catskills, perhaps the Balkans (still pending), New York City and at the end of the month, Charlottesville, VA. If you want to meet up, just let me know. I love coffee with colleagues!